What Your iPhone is Trying to Tell You

No matter how many iOS updates come out, there are always going to be snags. The good news is that the solution often is simply turning something off and on. You just need to know what that something is.

Symptom: Refusing to Connect to Wi-Fi

Symptom: Refusing to Connect to Wi-Fi

You have three bars of Wi-Fi signal strength, but your browser won't budge and your apps won't fire. That means a bad connection is preventing information from getting from the Internet to your phone. If you've exhausted everything on the network's end—like asking the guy next to you in the coffee shop if his Internet is working—then start fresh.

One option is to forget the network. Hit the arrow next to the desired network name, tap Forget This Network, and then reconnect. If that doesn't work, do a hard reset (you'll hear this a lot) by holding the home and sleep buttons simultaneously for a few seconds. Then try again.

If you're using an older phone, the router could be the problem. One option: Go into the router's settings and find the section with the acronym WPA. Switch that to WEP. It's a less secure but more accessible security protocol that will let your older phone get on the network.

When all else fails, perform a broader reset. Go to Settings > General > Reset, and hit Reset Network Settings. Be warned: You'll lose all the stored passwords for all your networks. However, this will fix a majority of connectivity issues.

Symptom: Messages Stop Just Before Sending

Symptom: Messages Stop Just Before Sending

This is probably a network issue. Try the aforementioned resets for your Wi-Fi. If they don't work, go into Settings and flick Airplane Mode on and then off, and see if you can resend the message.

If you're sending an iMessage—the blue text that means you're writing to a fellow iPhone or iPad owner for free—and it won't go through, you can try tapping the red exclamation mark and selecting Send as Text Message. It should go through—just as a text, not as a free iMessage. You can do the same for an iMessage that's stuck in sending progress by tapping the message itself and choosing to send it as a text instead.